1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a support mechanism, and more particularly to a support mechanism allowing an upper body and lower body of an electronic device to be pivotally turned relatively.
2. Description of Related Art
Accompanying the development of a machine with multiple functions, more and more business machines have functions such as facsimile, scanning, Xerox and printing concurrently; this allows not only the business machine to provide with multiple word processing capabilities, but also the volume thereof to become more light and handy. Besides, the assembly procedures for the business machine are simple, only telephone line, web line and power source line need to be connected thereto, it can then be collocated with a computer to use so that the business machine become more popular.
A general business machine includes an infrared image input device (IR image input device) and automatic document feeder (ADF). When an engine of the business machine needs to be maintained, the IR image input device and the ADF must be pulled up. But, because the IR image input device and the ASF have a certain extent of weight, a hinge or lever mechanism installed in the conventional business machine is unable to support the IR image input device and the ADF stably. This causes not only the IR image input device and the ADF to be dropped easily, but also a maintenance personnel to be damaged.
Please refer to FIG. 1. A conventional business machine includes an upper body A01 and a lower body A02, in which a hinge element A11 is installed between the upper body A01 and the lower body A02. Furthermore, a spring A12 is looped around the hinge element A11; one end of the hinge element A11 is fixed on an upper cover plate A13 and another end thereof is then fixed on a lower cover plate A14. When the upper body A01 of the business machine is opened upward or closed downward, the lengths of both hinge element A11 and the spring A12 are extended or shrunk, and a resist torsional force is generated to support the weight of the upper body A01 along a opening or closing angle of the upper body A01. Because the volume of the business machine is gradually shrunk, the dimensions of the hinge element A11 and the spring A12 must also be shrunk as the volume of the business machine such that the dimension of the resist torsional force is limited. When the resist torsional force is unable to support the weight of the upper body A01, it will cause the whole upper body A01 to be dropped down to generate a strong striking force to electronic elements therein and also to endanger the safety of maintenance personnel.
Therefore, for being assure of the stability in the process of the opening and the closing of the upper body of the electronic device and decreasing the number of components of the support structure so as to shrink space occupied by the support structure and further to attain to the object of the production cost reduction, the present invention is proposed.